Ten years has past really quickly. I was driving my brother-in-law down from his weekend stint in periodic detention ‘At Her Majesty’s Pleasure’, to our house in Penrith when the news cam on the radio. He’d heard it but I hadn’t. I was very upset at the time and I suppose underneath the layers of time I still am.Did I know her personally? Nope. Had I ever met her? Nope Would I ever have met her? Highly unlikely. Yet I was and am still upset.
Part of the upset was that like many others I saw her as a figurehead of some sort, thought what exactly the thinking was behind that I don’t know. Maybe she epitomised for some of us the stand against the traditional class ridden structures of society… weird bearing in mind what she was and her position in ’society’. Maybe she was seen as a rebel… or a fighter against the faceless bureaucracy… or maybe just as a well loved but badly wronged woman. Who knows. Regardless of the who’s or why’s.. I was sorry she died.
I’m also sorry that the cause of her death, the consort of the king-in-waiting, felt she could accept an invitation to the memorial service for her. Luckily the Queen saw sense and told the old bag to stay away. Had she appeared there may well have been riots. Ten years ago or not, Diana’s life and the indirect cause of her death are well remembered.
Will the feelings still be as strong in another ten years? I have no idea, but I *do* think that Camilla will never replace Diana and as long as she lives there will be a large portion of the public who revile her.
The Eclectic Interweb 